Everything wrong can be traced back to the FOX deal.

[johnyboy]

I miss the Spike TV days lol.

This so hard

 

[yermajesty]

The FOX production seems so low budget. Honestly, it's shitty all around.

 

[CC27]

I like Fly, BW, FW div and female divs, sorry I'm a fight fan.

I also dont hvae a problem with fights on Fox and FS1, not a moron who cant keep track of two channels, oh and Fight Pass.

So hard to know which fight card is on which, who can expect someone to keep track of things like that?

 

[TheLastSamurai]

The sad part is Fox doesn't even promote the cards like Spike did.

 

[El Che]

I think Rogan was more upset over this than the spilled ice.

Rogan also had to go through this because of FOX:

Lol, the cringeworthiness is strong in this clip. Ouch

 

[Source]

FOX deal was horrible for the fighters. This ideal of 'exposure' isn't really relevant for MMA fighters. The sport is frowned upon anyway.

Please explain what the fighters have told you about how much worse they are now than before. Unless by worse for the fighters you mean the voices in your head.

 

[TruthBeTold]

The spike days were great. I miss em

 

[RockyLockridge]

Prior to Fox it was basically Featherweight and bigger. There was no underdeveloped WMMA divisions, or the 125/135 mens divisions.

get out.

 

[JohnSAFTAHess]

Spike TV UFC was so much better.

 

[bigconan]

You could clearly see the UFC going in a downward spiral prior to the FOX deal, but it does play a big part in the decline.

I love hearing people say that the ufc is in a decline. yet, they are signing huge endorsement deals, are on a major network, have more ppv and live tv shows than ever before. Sorry guys, that is not a downward spiral. don't confuse a year filled with injures as the ufc going down hill. Cause they aren't.

 

[SuperNerd]

Prior to Fox it was basically Featherweight and bigger. There was no underdeveloped WMMA divisions, or the 125/135 mens divisions.

So FOX has nothing to do with anything that has 'gone wrong'. It was just another event around the similar time?

I'm sure t'was somebodies birthday was that day too.

 

[Se4n]

I love hearing people say that the ufc is in a decline. yet, they are signing huge endorsement deals, are on a major network, have more ppv and live tv shows than ever before. Sorry guys, that is not a downward spiral. don't confuse a year filled with injures as the ufc going down hill. Cause they aren't.

70m over 6 years is not "huge" for a brand as big as the UFC. They have more pay per views sure, but the numbers have drastically decreased. Quality means more than quantity and the UFC has lost quality.

 

[INTERL0PER]

Man, MMA fans love looking back on the past with rose tinted goggles.

Were the cards that better back then? Really? Even when they were months apart?

You know what I think a BIG difference is these days... we can watch the prelims. I remember a few years ago, when you'd NEVER be able to watch the prelims. There was literally no way to do it... apart from buying the event DVD a few months later or hoping for a lot of finishes so they could slot in a good prelim fight.

The absence of the prelims created the illusion of a higher quality product, but really, all the shitty no name fighters were still there... you just didn't see them.

People are also VERY quick to forget MMA/UFC successes... like 2013.

That year was fucking BANANAS. It was awesome. So many great fights it was hard to keep track. They had a run of PPV main events that were just insane:

164 - Pettis v Henderson
165 - Jones v Gus
166 - Cain v JDS 3
167 - GSP v Hendricks
168 - Weidman v Silva 2

And they were pretty stacked under cards too. I remember enjoying all those fights and cards immensely. And let's not forget that year was full of other classic fights/events:

Aldo v Edgar
Hunt v Bigfoot
Weidman v Silva 1
UFC 160 - Cain v Bigfoot (great card overall)
Silva v Stann
TRTor headkicking everyone.

It was a great fucking year... and it was last year.

But no.

The UFC is dying/oversaturated/watered down/corrupt/full of fighters no one likes/women/manlets and on and on and on and on.

Fucking MMA fans don't know how good they've got it. It could be better, sure, but in my opinion, MMA has never, ever been better than it was in 2013 and the only reason 2014 wasn't the same is because of the fucking injury bug (which also ruined 2012).

 

[Kinku]

Mma p4p worst fans in the world

 

[Skydome]

Prior to Fox it was basically Featherweight and bigger. There was no underdeveloped WMMA divisions, or the 125/135 mens divisions. The UFC was still on Spike - a single channel the fans could easily access which showed old UFC cards and even prelims for some PPVs that got you amped for the main cards. And the PPV cards were not as often, leading to stacked and exciting cards. You couldn't find a seat at Buffalo Wild Wing's.

But look at what's happened since coming to FOX. And today, you have the company with horrible ratings, low PPV buys, and fighters who are furious enough to sue the parent company. Nothing about the FOX deal has made the UFC look better or more entertaining.

uhmm.didnt 135 and 145 debut on the same card?

 

[Natman2939]

I'm in the camp of people who dont necessarily think there's anything "wrong" right now other than maybe cards arn't as stacked top to bottom as they used to be (something like UFC on Fox 13, where every single main card fight was interesting, used to be almost the norm when the UFC put on PPV's just once every 1.5 months--now it's a once a year spectacle, maybe twice)

but I will say the whole "things feeling too watered down" definitely started around that time cause we only had ppv's and fight night's (and the once in a blue moon thing they did on vs..whatever they called that)

now suddenly we've got ufc on fs1 and ufc on fight pass, plus ppv's plus the occassional fox card.

 

[Natman2939]

and the whole FS1 thing really screwed the UFC imo.

They can act like it's awesome to "practically have a channel to ourselves"

but FX is a pretty damn big channel with great shows like Justified and Sons of Anarchy. FX is right up there with USA and just a couple of other "b level" networks that while not nearly as big as NBC/CBS/FOX/ABC are way bigger than 3rd or 4th rate channels like FS1 or even Spike

 

[tfcfights]

GSP was fighting about twice a year. What do you think was carrying the UFC to popularity the other 10 months when GSP wasn't fighting ? The UFC was packaged better under Spike. It fit them better and their company put out a better product.

i completley agree i think ufc was more healthy with a spike versus or nbc sports look how versus alone did with wec and jon jones early career spike also would play ufc all day and has such a built in audience i actually know way more ppl tht watch spike ink master tatoo nightmares bar rescue then they do fox sports 1

fox sports 1 demands way to much cards then fox doesnt give ufc enough events on their main channel

even a showtime cbs option with cbs sports might of been better

 

[Taric]

 

[Bmurray]

I like the new divisions. People who cry about women's divisions and small fighters are morons. I like having more cards and more fights.

That being said, I had to upgrade my cable service to get FS1, then I noticed the MMA shows were always on FS2, so I had to upgrade again.

My DVR constantly gets tricked by both channels. Some weeks Tuf will be called Tuf: Rousey vs Tate, then the next its called The Ultimate Fighter, and of course my DVR misses it. College basketball also messes with the start time a lot, making me miss the end of Tuf.

Also, in order to watch an entire UFC card I have to start up Fight-Pass, then after 2 fights swap to FS1, then later swap to PPV...wtf is that shit? Who do I have to pay to be able to sit on my fucking couch and watch a whole card without fiddling with my sources?

I also don't like the Fox music or the non-mma commentary at all.